Your Town: Power outages darken day for thousands

Electricity gremlins had a fine April Fools' Day on Monday, knocking out power twice to thousands of Monterey Peninsula customers for hours at a time.

The first outage affected about 3,500 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in the Monterey-Salinas Highway corridor. It started just before 11a.m. and lasted 2½ hours before power was completely restored.

PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles said the cause was "a problem with underground equipment."

The second outage caused lights to flicker and go dark about 3p.m., as electricity went out for about 4,400 customers from Carmel to Ryan Ranch in Monterey. Boyles said there was no indication what caused the second outage, though it could have been related to the first one. Sometimes as power comes back on, it can cause other problems in the affected circuits, he said.

SALINAS

Community policing classes begin soon

Salinas' Community Police Academy is accepting applications through Monday for the spring session, which runs May 2 to July 18. The three-hour classes meet at 6p.m. Thursdays for 12 weeks. Participants go on ride-alongs, investigate mock crime scenes, learn about the SWAT and K9 programs and more.

Applicants must be at least 18 and live or work in Salinas or be part of a community group that serves city residents. Class is limited to 25 students.

Listos, a Spanish-language disaster preparedness training program, will hold a graduation ceremony for its first 20 participants Tuesday. The four-week program was funded with a grant from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Listos and PG&E partnered with CHISPA Housing Management, the county Office of Emergency Services and the Salinas Fire Department in the Latino outreach effort.